This blog continues the discussion that we began with Epic Journey: The 2008 Elections and American Politics (Rowman and Littlefield, 2009). In 2017, be on the lookout for the next book in this series: Defying the Odds: the 2016 Elections and American Politics.

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Defying the Odds

New book about the 2016 election.

Sunday, December 4, 2016

One Nation Money

One of the most active groups in the 2016 cycle wasn’t a super PAC — though those were plenty busy — but a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, One Nation. From mid-2015 through 2016, the group spent about $40 million in a largely successful push to protect the GOP’s fragile majority in the Senate. And it did so without disclosing a single donor to the public.

Under new management and a new name, One Nation’s revenues went from nothing to more than $10 million, according to newly filed tax documents obtained by the Center for Responsive Politics that cover 2015. (One Nation’s tax filing covering its 2016 activities isn’t due until November 2017.)

More than 61 percent of those revenues came from just four anonymous donorswho gave $1 million or more; one topped out at $2.5 million